Footrail for vehicle seats



March 15, 1949. A. B. BELL FOOT RAIL FOR VEHICLE SEATS Filed Oct. 29, 1945 Patented Mar. 15, 1949 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE FOQTRAIL FOR VEHICLE SEATS Alfred E. Bell, Philadelphia, Pa, assignor to Heywood-Wakefield Company, Gardner, Mass, a corporation of Massachusetts Application Gctober 29, 1945, Serial No. 25,131

3 Claims. 1

This invention relates to foot rails for vehicle seats and more particularly to a novel foot rail pivotally supported on the base or pedestal of the seat and movable about the pivot axis to an idle position in which the rail is housed inconspicuously and out of the way within the pedestal and an operative position in which the rail rests on the floor remotely from the pedestal. The construction is extremely simple and the moving of the rail to and from its two positions requires merely a pivoting thereof about the pivot axis. The feature by which the rail is conveniently housed between the seat renders it particularly adaptable for use on both sides of reversible car seats and the novel manner of supporting the rail in operative position directly on the floor provides a structure which is independent of seat movement and adapted to support a substantial load without danger of breakage. tion of a new and improved foot rail of this nature and embodying these novel features comprises the primary object of the invention.

These and other features of the invention will be The producbest understood and appreciated from the following description of a preferred embodiment thereof, selected for purposes of illustration and shown in the accompanying drawing, in which:

Figure l is a side elevation of a railway reversible car seat on both sides of which are mounted foot rails embodying the invention;

Figure 2 is a fragmentary rear elevation of the pedestal shown in Figure 1 and the foot rail mounted thereon;

Figure 3 is a section on the line 3-3 of Figure 2;

Figure 4 is a section on the line l-4 of Figure 3;

Figure 5 is a section on the line 5-5 of Figure 3;

A conventional railway car seat is illustrated in Figure 1, this car seat having a seat cushion Ill, a back i2, and a side wall I l on which is an arm rest iii. The seat is mounted on a hollow pedestal comprising a horizontal frame 18 including angle irons supporting at each end on a side wall 20, the pedestal being open at the front and rear between the side w'alls to receive the foot rails hereinafter described, like the pedestal frame shown in patent 1,696,536. The seat is preferably rotatable on the pedestal but the pedestal itself is fixed to the floor.

As indicated in Figure 1, one foot rail is mounted in front and another at the rear of each pedestal so that no matter which way the seat thereon is facing, a rail will be available to the occupant of the seat behind. Since the structure of each foot 2 rail. and its supporting means is identical with that of the other rails, only one of these structures is described herein. Of the foot rails shown in Figure l, the one, on the right will be referred to as the rear foot rail. The one on the left is at the front ofthe seat and is in its stowed position as it will not be wanted until thev seat is swung around to face the other way, whereupon the raii on the left becomesv the rear rail and can be swung. out toitsposition of use, the rail on the right being then swung tov its stowed position.

The supporting means for each foot rail comprises a pair of fixed brackets. 22 secured atone end 23 to the pedestal frame and projecting downwardly and rearwardly to a point near. the iioor on which the pedestal is mounted. ..To the rear end of each bracket 22 is pivotally attached at 26 an arm 24 permitting the arms to rock about a common axis extending through the pivots. To the other ends of the arms 2&- is secured a shaft :28, this shaft having end portions 30 which project beyond the arms 24 and carry fittings 32 on which is mounted a foot rail 34. The foot rail is a board or similar flat object which may be transversely convex as shown and which is secured at or near its ends to the fittings 32. The rail is parallel to and rockable about the axis of the shaft 28.

In order to limit the angle of rocking movement of the rail about the axis of the shaft 28, each fitting 32 is provided with a pair of stop-pins 38 which are parallel to the shaft 28 and are arranged to engage one or the other of the side edges of the adjacent arm 2 When the rail 35 is rocked in one direction or the other as indicated in Figures 1 and 4. The full line figure of the rear rail 34 and its supporting arms 24 shows one position of use. By pushing the heels against the lower margin of the rail, the passenger can tilt it to a more nearly vertical position such as is shown in dotted lines. The rail can also be swung forward about the axis of the pivots 26 to its stowed position beneath the seat and partly within the pedestal as shown in dotted lines. The stop pins 38 are arranged to permit a rail rocking movement approximating and this feature of construction serves the functions of varying the angular position of the rail to the convenience and comfort of the passenger and of permitting rocking movement of the rail to a position wherein it can pass beneath the seat and into the pedestal.

The rail supporting arms 24 are pivoted to the bottom ends of the brackets 22 and each has its bottom end formed into a semicircular abutment 2'! of such radius that the abutments are closely adjacent to the floor and contact the floor and provide the forward support for the foot rail when downward pressure is exerted on the rail. Thus the rail is supported forwardly and rearwardly directly on the floor and is thereby adapted to support a substantial load quite independently of the brackets 22 and the seat pedestal.

Various changes and modifications may be made in the particular embodiment of the invention herein shown and described without departing from the scope thereof as defined by the following claims.

I claim:

1. In combination with a vehicle seat pedestal comprising a horizontal frame supported above the floor at its ends by downwardly extending supports resting on the floor, a pair of parallel brackets fixed to the pedestal adjacent to its ends and extending downward and obliquely away a from the pedestal to points adjacent to the floor, a pair of spaced arms pivoted at one end to the bottom ends of the brackets for swinging movement about a common axis, and a foot rail supported adjacent to its ends on the other ends pedestal and a position-in which the arms extend away from the pedestal and the rail rests on the floor remotely from the pedestal.

2. The combination defined in claim 1 plus abutments on said arms adjacent to said common axis disposed to rest on the floor when the foot rail is in the remotely disposed position.

3. In combination with a vehicle seat or the like having a hollow pedestal open at the back, a pair of fixed and parallel brackets mounted in spaced relation on said pedestal at opposite sides of the back opening and projecting rearwardly and downwardly therefrom, arms pivotally attached at one end to said brackets by pivots having a common axis, a shaft parallel with said axis fixed to the other end of said arms to rock with them as a unit about said pivot axis, a foot rail arranged adjacent and parallel to said shaft, a pair of fittings secured to said rail near its ends and mounted on the two end portions of said shaft for rocking movement about the longitudinal axis of the shaft, and a pair of stops carried by each of said fittings and arranged to engage opposite sides of the adjacent arm and limit said rocking movement of the rail about the axis of the shaft, the arms and rail being pivotally movable about said common axis to a position in which the arms extend from the common axis toward, and the rail is disposed within, the pedestal and a position in which the arms eX- tend away from the pedestal and the rail rests on the floor remotely from the pedestal.

ALFRED B. BELL.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 903,361 Davis Nov. 10, 1908 926,309 Witte June 29, 1909 2,093,455 Knight Sept. 21, 1937 2,236,983 Yusek Apr. 1, 1941 

